CLEVELAND, Ohio -- I find myself thinking a lot about John Wayne's movie "The Shootist" lately, since our president, Donald Trump, started pushing the idea of arming teachers as a way to eliminate mass school shootings.

His thought is that 10 to 20 percent of teachers are "adept" with firearms. So they should carry guns on the job and be ready to shoot it out with any mass murderer who comes into their school.

Here's where John Wayne comes in.

In "The Shootist," Wayne plays the deadly pistoleer, John Bernard Books, who is battling cancer. Instead of hanging around the boarding house, waiting to die, he decides to go out in a blaze of glory by ridding Carson City of its gun-fighter wannabe riffraff.

One day he gives a shooting lesson to a young Ron Howard, who plays his landlady's son. As they head out to a field, Howard says: "Bat Masterson said that a man has to have guts, deliberation and a proficiency with firearms."

After they blast off a few rounds at a distant tree, Howard looks at the close grouping of their shots and says: "How could you get into so many fights and always come out on top? I nearly tied you shooting."

Wayne replies, pointing at the field: "Friend, there's nobody up there shooting back at you. It isn't always being fast or even accurate that counts. It's being willing. I found out early that most men, regardless of cause or need, aren't willing. They'll blink an eye or draw a breath before they pull the trigger. I won't."

In other words, it takes nerves of steel and deadly instinct to win a gunfight, and I can assure you that The Ohio State University Department of Education never offered a course in that.

I am not saying that a piece of movie dialogue is the last word on gunfighting or protecting students, but it matches the common-sense view that a "proficiency with firearms" is one thing, while shooting it out face-to-face with a crazed killer is quite another.

Even some armed, trained deputies on the scene in Parkland, Florida, didn't rush to face the gunman, so it's beyond belief to me that an English teacher would fearlessly -- and accurately -- blaze away with a Glock in one hand and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" in the other.

Good-quality western movies often show that even a tough guy has qualms about killing.

In "Unforgiven" the Schofield Kid is giddy at the prospect of shooting someone. But when he finally does, he weeps and gives his gun away. I believe his final word on the topic is, "I ain't no killer."

Gary Cooper in "High Noon" plays the firearms-proficient town sheriff, but he's not excited to learn that gunmen are coming after him. In fact, when he realizes no one's going to help, he looks like like he might have a stroke.

And in "The Shootist" Ron Howard's character ends up killing someone in defense of John Bernard Books, and as soon as the person falls dead, Howard throws the gun across the barroom in disgust.

Confession: I was a high school teacher for two years. Was I ready to face down an armed lunatic?

I should have been, according to Trump. I had been shooting guns since I was a kid: BB guns, rifles, pistols, shotguns ... you name it. In fact, I was one of the most fearless tin-can killers in Ashtabula County.